online file w8.1 wi-fi and the traveling...

Chapter Eight: Mobile Computing and Commerce, and Pervasive Computing 8-1

Online File W8.1 Wi-Fi and the Traveling Public

Perhaps nowhere else in the world is there a more compelling case for Wi-Fi connectivity than in the travel industry.Airports, train stations, and hotels are the places that travelers are most likely to have spare time on their hands. Businesstravelers are keen to make productive use of this “dead” time by answering e-mail or conducting business research on theWeb. Recreational travelers frequently want to send e-mail to or read e-mail from friends and family, catch up with fellowtravelers through instant messaging, or investigate activities at their next destination. Both types of travelers may needto book accommodations, alert contacts at their destination of expected arrival times, or reserve taxis or shuttles.

Because of the demands and needs of the traveling public, Wi-Fi hotspots in airports and hotels have grown from anovelty to a necessity. According to the 2008 edition of the iPass Broadband Mobility Index, Wi-Fi hotspots increased46 percent from mid-2007 to mid-2008. For the first time, European business use of Wi-Fi hotspots eclipsed North Americanbusiness use, growing almost 90 percent and accounting for more than 45 percent of all usage worldwide. Intercity travelvenues remained the most popular Wi-Fi hotspots, accounting for 75 percent of sessions globally. Airports were still thetop venue with 40 percent of the overall sessions, with hotels coming in second with almost 35 percent of the global share.However, hotel Wi-Fi hotspot usage grew faster than airport usage, with approximately 65 percent growth compared to30 percent growth for airports. “Commuter transit locations,” such as train stations, also showed strong growth of approxi-mately 80 percent (iPass 2008).

Besides the time spent in fixed locations like airports and hotels, another source of unproductive time is the timespent actually traveling on a plane, bus, or train. In response, mobile Wi-Fi hotspots are beginning to make an appearance.

In the past, Lufthansa offered in-flight Wi-Fi service on its long-haul fleet. The hotspots were connected to theInternet via satellites, and the user paid fees similar to other Wi-Fi access services. However, Lufthansa discontinued theservice in 2006 due to low usage. In 2008 a number of airlines began either testing or providing broadband in-flight Wi-Fiservices. American, Canadian, and Virgin America airlines are some of the carriers that began providing these services onselect aircraft models or select flights. These services are based on AirCell’s (aircell.com) ground-to-air GoGo service. Incontrast, JetBlue, Alaska, and Southwest Airlines are relying on Row 44’s (row44.com) satellite service to provide 802.11b/g Wi-Fi connections. Unlike AirCell’s service, Row 44 is not limited by international borders and is available throughoutthe North American continent.

Sources: Compiled from Fleishman (2006) and Reed (2007).

REFERENCES FOR ONLINE FILE W8.1Fleishman, G. “Comprehensive U.S. Airport Wi-Fi Guide.”

Wifinetnews.com, September 12, 2006. wifinetnews.com/archives/006954.html (accessed December 2008).

iPass. iPass Mobile Broadband Index. September 22, 2008.ipass.com/pressroom/pressroom_wifi.html (accessedDecember 2008).

Reed, B. “How Four Airlines Plan to Connect Fliers to theWeb.” PC World, December 7, 2007. pcworld.com/article/id,140416-c,wireless/article.html (accessedDecember 2008).

8-2 Part 4: Other EC Models and Applications

Online File W8.2 Wi-Fi Mesh Networks, Google Talk, and Interoperability

Researchers in India have developed a protocol that will enable wide area coverage of Wi-Fi networks, which are called Wi-Fi mesh networks. With the conventional Wi-Fi networks that are common in Internet cafés and airports, radio signalsare exchanged between portable devices and the base station, which has a wired connection to the Internet. Their range isonly 100 meters or less. With a Wi-Fi mesh network, several nodes can exchange radio signals with each other as well aswith the devices. The range of a Wi-Fi mesh network is up to 40 kilometers (approximately 25 miles) and at speeds up to20 times faster than traditional Wi-Fi. This arrangement provides wider geographical Wi-Fi coverage at lower cost than aseries of conventional Wi-Fi networks, because not all of the nodes have to be wired to the Internet.

Another development is Google’s Google Talk service, which allows for voice connections and IM. In May 2006, Googleand Nokia launched a handheld Internet browsing device that contained Google Talk, which relies on Wi-Fi instead of cellphone networks. As many as 300 municipalities, including San Francisco, Philadelphia, Suffolk County in Long Island, NewYork, and the entire state of Connecticut, plan to offer the Wi-Fi service free of charge. Initially, because of the differentprotocols, the device cannot call regular phones. However, cell phone equipment manufacturers, including Avaya, CiscoSystems, and Motorola, are testing devices that have both Wi-Fi and cell phone network capabilities. For example,Motorola partnered with eBay’s VoIP provider Skype. Customers with Wi-Fi–enabled mobile phones will have the option ofusing Skype’s service in place of a landline service as long as they are within range of a Wi-Fi signal. Once out of Wi-Firange, the phone switches to cellular technology. Sales of mobile phones with both cellular and Wi-Fi capability will bebooming by 2010, according to a study by market research company In-Stat.

REFERENCES FOR ONLINE FILE W8.2Fleetwood, C. “New Nokia, Google Partnership Highlights

WiFi Trend.” CNNMoney.com, May 12, 2006. cellular-news.com/story/17361.php (accessed December 2008).

Technology Review. “Long-Distance Wi-Fi.” October2005.

ONLINE FILE W8.3Application Case

MOBILE SALES SOLUTION RESULTS IN £1 MILLIONREVENUE BOOSTFounded in 1971, Hillarys is one of the United Kingdom’sleading made-to-measure blinds manufacturers, with revenuesof more than £85 million a year and a 23 percent share of thedomestic made-to-measure blinds market. Hillarys employs800 self-employed advisors who visit customers in theirhomes to provide guidance on the company’s range of blinds,awnings, and canopies. The advisors take orders and measurewindows. When the blinds have been manufactured, theadvisors return to customers’ homes to fit them. Each week8,500 orders are processed and 25,000 individual blinds aresold, manufactured, and fitted.

In the past, orders were done manually by completing apaper form and submitting the form to Hillarys’ head office.This resulted in a 4-day delay from the time an order wastaken to the time that it was manually entered into the systemat the head office. Because the forms were handwritten,

details were sometimes prone to error and misinterpretation.Manual order entry and processing often leads to inaccurateinformation, and it also requires a substantial amount of extrawork to chase down the correct information. Hillarys processesapproximately 10,000 orders a week. About 20 percent ofthose orders require correction. Considering that the amount oftime required to correct the entries averages about 4 days,customers often experienced large delays in their orders.

Hillarys recognized that it required a cost-effectivesolution that would improve the efficiency and accuracy ofordering and that was integrated with their existing SAPsystem. The solution also had to be easy to use and neededto fit with their existing sales cycle and processes.

After a thorough review of the situation, Hillarysresponded to a proposal from Fujitsu Services to develop amobile solution. The solution was based on Microsoft

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ONLINE FILE W8.3 (continued)

Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC Phone Edition technologyrunning on handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs).Fujitsu Services developed a solution running on VodafoneQtek 2020 devices. Hillarys called the solution Sales AdvisoryMobilisation (SAM). SAM offered real-time, two-way commu-nication from the PDAs to the back office. It also integratedseamlessly with the organization’s existing SAP ordering anddiary-management system.

Using SAM, advisors access their daily schedules ontheir PDA. This gives them customer details, timing, andthe nature of appointments. Customer and appointmentinformation, which is gathered centrally in Hillarys’ callcenter, is sent to the advisors’ devices daily. The automatedallocation is based on their location, availability, and spe-cialist skills.

The device leads the sales advisor through the salesprocess. Using a series of drop-down menus and pick lists, theadvisor captures order information about window size, producttype, and other special instructions. Complex pricing andpromotions information is retrieved from a pocket edition ofMicrosoft’s SQL Server database running on the PDA. Thisensures that the customer gets the best deal. The advisor canthen give the customer a quote, which they can print out ona portable printer, or take payment with a credit or debit card.The device submits credit card information to the bank for on-the-spot authorization.

The order is sent to the head office in real time andis uploaded automatically into the SAP ordering system,eliminating the risk of processing errors associated withhandwritten forms.

The advisors helped Fujitsu design the screens, theapplication flow, and the language used. As a result, thesolution mimics their sales process. By the time the projectis complete, there will be 700 advisors using the device,which is about 85 percent of Hillarys’ sales force.

The mobile solution provided by Fujitsu resulted in anumber of benefits for Hillarys. Among the most importantwere the following:

◗ Increased efficiency and productivity. Through theelectronic capture of data and its immediate transmissionto the ordering system, the need for time-consuming,unproductive work is dramatically reduced. Better customerservice is achieved by field advisors getting to theirappointments promptly, pricing is more accurate, debit andcredit card transactions are more secure, and blinds arefitted on time. Hillarys was able to redeploy resources intomore productive areas. Queries are resolved much earlier inthe sales cycle. If an order changes, the information isautomatically uploaded from the device to the back office.

◗ Increased revenue. Results from the pilot demonstratedsales opportunities of around £1.1 million a year as aresult of improved accuracy in the pricing of blinds. Thesystem calculates the price automatically, which is moreeffective than a manual system.

◗ Reduced costs. Hillarys expected to achieve return oninvestment (ROI) in the first year of rollout and deliver netcost savings of around £0.25M a year thereon. Hillarys hasgreater visibility of incoming orders and the organizationcan more effectively balance income with advertising anddirect-labor costs. The increased accuracy of advisors’ diaryinformation means fewer wasted trips and considerably lesspaperwork for them to complete at the end of each day.

Not only does the system impact the company’s overallrevenues, but it also impacts the costs and earnings of theindividual advisor. The company estimated that SAM wouldsave the average advisor around £700 a year and wouldincrease his or her incremental commission by £2,000 a year.

Sources: Compiled from Fujitsu (2005) and Microsoft (2005).

REFERENCES FOR ONLINE FILE W8.3Fujitsu. “Hillary Blinds.” 2005. fujitsu.com/downloads/

SVC/fs/casestudies/hillarys-blinds.pdf (accessedDecember 2008).

Microsoft. “Large Field Sales Operation to BoostRevenues by More Than £1 Million with Mobile

Solution.” 2005. whitepapers.techrepublic.com.com/thankyou.aspx?&docid=268246&view=268246(accessed December 2008).


ONLINE FILE W8.4Application Case

NEXTBUS—A SUPERB CUSTOMER SERVICEThe ProblemBuses in certain parts of San Francisco have difficulty keep-ing up with the posted schedule, especially during rushhours. Generally, buses are scheduled to arrive every 20 min-utes, but at times passengers may have to wait 30 to 40minutes. The scheduled times become meaningless and pas-sengers are unhappy because they waste time.

The SolutionSan Francisco bus riders carrying an Internet-enabled wire-less device, such as a cell phone or PDA, can quickly find outwhen a bus is likely to arrive at a particular bus stop. TheNextBus (nextbus.com) system tracks public transportationbuses in real time. Knowing where each bus is and factoringin traffic patterns and weather reports, NextBus calculatesthe estimated arrival time of the bus to each bus stop on theroute. Arrival times also are displayed on the Internet and ona public screen at each bus stop.

The NextBus system has been used successfully in sev-eral other cities around the United States, in Finland, andin several other countries. Exhibit W8.4.1 shows how theNextBus system works. The core of the NextBus system isthe set of GPS satellites that lets the NextBus information

center know where a bus is located. Based on a bus’slocation, the scheduled arrival time at each stop can becalculated.

Currently, NextBus is an ad-free customer service, butin the near future advertising may be added. Because thesystem knows exactly where a rider is when they requestinformation and how much time they have until their nextbus, in the future, the system may send the rider to thenearest Starbucks for a cup of coffee, giving them an elec-tronic discount coupon.

The ResultsPassengers in San Francisco are happy with the system;worries about missing the bus are diminished. A similarsystem is used in rural areas in Finland, where buses are infre-quent and the winters are very cold; passengers can stay in awarm coffeehouse not far from the bus stop rather than waitin the cold for a bus that may be an hour late. A bus companycan also use the system to improve scheduling, arrange forextra buses when needed, and improve its operations.

By 2007 numerous public transportation systems wereusing the NextBus GPS technology to track buses and keeppassengers informed of arrival times (NextBus 2007).

GPS Satellites

NextBusInformation

Center

WorldWide Web

Real-TimeArrival

Predictions

Location andBus ID reported

to AutomaticVehicle Location(AVL) at NextBus

Information Center

01001001010110110010010110101001010

01001001010110110010010110101001010

01001001010110110010010110101001010

Real-TimePassengerMessages

TransitManagementInformation

Wireless Phoneand Mobile Devices

Shelter Signsand Public Displays

Pole Signs

WirelessCommunication

WirelessCommunication

22 Fillmore7 min & 12 min

EXHIBIT W8.4.1 NextBus Operational Model

Source: Used with permission of NextBus Information Systems, Inc. Copyright © 2005.


REFERENCES FOR ONLINE FILE W8.4ITS America. “NextBus Expands Real-Time Transit

Information in the Bay Area with AC Transit.” ITSAmerica, August 9, 2001. nextbus.com/corporate/press/#actransitExpansion (accessed December2008).

NextBus. “Intelligent System Predicts Bus Arrival Timesand Reduces Transportation Complaints.” Press release,September 26, 2007. nextbus.com/corporate/press/inthenews.htm (accessed April 2009).

Nextbus. nextbus.com (accessed April 2009).

Online File W8.5 Security Approaches for Mobile Computing

WEPWEP (wired equivalent privacy) is a security protocol for Wi-Fi networks that encrypts the communications between amobile device (e.g., a laptop, tablet PC, PDA) and the wireless access point. WEP provides weak encryption, meaning thatit is secured against casual hacking as long as the person setting up the network turns on the encryption. Unfortunately,many small business owners and homeowners operating a WLAN fail to do just that.

Although WEP offers a measure of security, the trade-off is inconvenience. In order to employ WEP, all Wi-Fi usersmust be educated on how it works, their computers must be reconfigured to connect to the network, and the encryptioncode must be changed frequently. Additionally, every authorized user must be given the encryption key, which means thata lot of people will be carrying around the keys to the network. In larger companies, if a hacker can gain access to theencryption key or can get through the WEP security in some other way—which is easily done with readily available soft-ware, such as Aircrack-ng (aircrack-ng.org/doku.php) or WEPCrack (wepcrack.sourceforge.net)—the damage is often greater,because companies have a habit of installing their wireless access points behind their firewalls.

There are alternatives to WEP. If a company is concerned about the security of wireless data communications, it can useVPN technology to create a secure connection over the wireless link. Also, a new Wi-Fi security standard—Wi-Fi ProtectiveAccess (WPA)—is under development. This standard has the backing of the Wireless Fidelity Alliance and the Institute ofElectrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). WPA provides enhanced encryption and supports user authentication, somethingthat was missing from WEP. The alliance has already begun certifying Wi-Fi products with WPA security. The WPA encryptionwas cracked in 2007 and experts recommend using WPA2 when securing wireless networks (Vamosi 2008).

SIM-Based AuthenticationGSM and its 2.5G and 3.0G counterparts all include SIM. This module is usually implemented as a smart card that containsan authentication key along with other vital information about the subscriber. The authentication key also is stored on a“home location registry,” which can be thought of as a database that is part of the mobile network. When the phone isturned on, the user is asked to enter a PIN number. This protects the cell phone against illegal use if it happens to bestolen or lost. If the PIN is correct, the cell phone and the network engage in a “challenge-response” process of authenti-cation. A network authentication center sends a random number to the cell phone’s SIM. The SIM computes a “signedresponse” by combining the random number with its authentication key. The signed response is sent over the network tothe authentication center, which performs the same computation using a copy of the authentication key stored on thehome-location registry. If the signed response matches the value computed by the authentication center, then the cellphone is authenticated. After that, communication takes place through “symmetric encryption,” using a key generated byboth the authentication center and the SIM.

Although SIM cards protect against unauthorized use of a particular subscriber’s account, they do not prevent theuse of a stolen cell phone. If a thief steals a phone, the thief can simply replace the existing SIM card with anotherone and sell it on the open market. The police in Amsterdam employed an interesting method to thwart this practice.Using a cell phone’s International Mobile Equipment Identity number, the police are able to track down the mobilephone number being used on the stolen phone. Once the number is known, the police employ a special computer pro-gram to send out an SMS message to the stolen phone every 3 minutes. The message reads, “This handset was nicked[stolen]; buying or selling it is a crime. The Police.” Obviously, this makes the stolen phone a lot less attractive toprospective buyers.

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Online File W8.5 (continued)

WTSL and WIMThe transmissions between the WAP gateway and the Web server can be secured through the wired Internet security proto-cols discussed in Chapter 11 (e.g., PKI, SSL, and TSL). These protocols cannot be used on the mobile side of the gateway.Instead, WAP relies on the Wireless Transport Layer Security (WTLS). Like its wired counterpart (TSL), WTLS enablesencrypted communications between a mobile device and the WAP gateway. Additionally, WTLS supports the key elements ofPKI—public and private encryption keys, digital certificates, digital signatures, and the like.

A wireless identity module (WIM) can be used in combination with WTLS. A WIM is a smart card device, much like aSIM (and, in fact, can be implemented on a SIM). It is designed to hold the security keys and digital certificates used bythe gateway and the Web server to encrypt/decrypt communications. One of the advantages of a WIM is that it can beissued by a bank or other financial institution to handle m-commerce payments and transactions.

REFERENCES FOR ONLINE FILE W8.5Evers, J. “Dutch Police Fight Cell Phone Theft with

SMS Bombs.” IDG News Service, March 27, 2001.archives.cnn.com/2001/TECH/ptech/03/28/SMS.bomb.idg (accessed December 2008).

Vamosi, R. “WPA Wireless Encryption Cracked.” CNETNews, November 6, 2008. news.cnet.com/8301-10789_3-10083861-57.html (accessed April 2009).

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